A Perennial Sadsack in the World Series Is Guaranteed

Jeurys Familia of the New York Mets celebrates after the team’s 3-2 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 5 of the National League Division Series.

Getty Images

One nice thing about this year’s MLB playoffs is that no matter what happens, we’re getting a bunch of losers in the World Series. The Toronto Blue Jays are total losers—before this year, they hadn’t made the playoffs in over two decades. The Kansas City Royals? Lifelong losers, despite last year’s World Series berth. The New York Mets and Chicago Cubs? Man, where do you even begin?

Apologies to Toronto and Kansas City, but it’s the Cubs-Mets face-off that’s set to capture the nation’s attention with its decades of history and unique aura of despair. (To say nothing of all the first-person essays that have yet to be written by fans, and will begin with some variation of, “My father and I…”) Tickets for the National League Championship Series, which starts on Saturday, have already soared to the astronomical. Matt Harvey, the would-be Mets ace whose tendons might detonate if he pitches too many innings in the next few weeks, is ready to play. The Cubs are betting favorites to win the World Series, but don’t tell that to anyone who’s watched them suffer through a century of false starts, heartbreaking collapses, questionable curses, etc. The Mets are a similar team of upstarts, backed by young arms—perfectly on display for Thursday’s series-clinching Game 5 win over the Dodgers, as Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard teamed up to stifle L.A.’s bats—and a peculiar mix of hitters. Take someone like Daniel Murphy, a long tenured member who suddenly emerged as a playoff hero, or Yoenis Cespedes, the white-hot slugger who was acquired at the trade deadline and is good enough to make even the most jaded of fans drop their jaws in disbelief. The Mets are not scrappy upstarts shooting for the moon—they’re a legitimate team with that precarious mix of youth, experience, and attitude that can guide them to the World Series. “This isn’t a dream anymore,” writes Sports Illustrated’s Phil Taylor. “It isn’t a long shot. The Mets know a championship is realistic. They can smell it as distinctly as that bubbly-and-brew aroma that’s becoming so familiar.”